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West Ham United: ExWHUemployee challenges Attila Szalai transfer claims

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Image for West Ham United: ExWHUemployee challenges Attila Szalai transfer claims

Insider ExWHUemployee has claimed that reports saying West Ham United are close to signing Attila Szalai are ‘premature’. 

According to a report from Turkish publication Yeni Safak, the Hammers are supposedly ready to make a €15m (£12.4m) bid for the Fenerbahce defender.

On top of that, journalist Ryan Taylor also named the player as an option to replace Issa Diop – who has since joined Fulham – with the Hungarian valued at around £10-15m.

Despite all this talk, Ex has stated that a deal is not close for West Ham at this moment in time – contrary to the reports coming out of Turkey.

In a post to The West Ham Way Patreon page, he said: “Whilst we have reported interest in Hungarian defender Attila Szalai, we believe that talks in Turkey that he is on the brink of signing are very premature. We are in fact in more advanced discussions with other centre-backs at this point.”

Do West Ham need to sign another centre-back?

Yes

Yes

No

No

TIF Thoughts on Attila Szalai and West Ham United…

At 24 years of age, the defender was a mainstay in the Fenerbahce team last season, playing 42 games in all competitions – including all six of his side’s Europa League group games (via Transfermarkt).

According to SofaScore, he averaged a 6.78 match rating in the Super Lig across 24 starts, keeping five clean sheets and making 1.1 tackles per game.

He certainly looks to be a solid option – though he isn’t exactly the most high-profile name to be linked at the moment, with Manchester United defender Eric Bailly also being spoken about recently as a potential target. Therefore, it’ll be interesting to see if this story develops any further.

For now, though, a transfer doesn’t seem imminent.

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